Roofing products

ABSTRACT

Roofing products with improved laying lines. In one embodiment, the roofing product includes a laying line oriented lengthwise on one side of the roofing product, and the laying line has a width of at least ⅛ inch.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The invention relates to roofing products. More particularly, the invention relates to roofing products with laying lines.

[0003] 2. Description of Related Art

[0004] Some man made roofing products (e.g., composite slates) resemble natural slate roofing. These products are a recognized alternative to natural slates because they are typically lighter weight, less expensive, and easier to apply. With man made slates, it is relatively easy to control color, weight, size and durability.

[0005] Installation for such slate products begins with covering the roof deck with a waterproof underlayer. The slates are attached to the roof deck in rows, or courses. Indentions or holes have been provided in slate products, including composite slates, to facilitate fastening the slates to the roof deck. The indentions or holes may require an extra manufacturing step beyond the molding and/or cutting of the slate product.

[0006] Composite slates have also been provided with nibs on their sides and thin laying lines on their front surfaces to facilitate spacing and alignment of the slates during application. For composite slates that lack nibs and laying lines, horizontal and vertical lines have been chalked on the underlayer to guide application.

[0007] Despite the use of these alignment guides, problems associated with application remain. It is sometimes difficult to ensure that the rows of slates are applied in straight courses that are parallel to one another.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] In one embodiment, the present invention is a roofing product that comprises a laying line oriented lengthwise on one side of the roofing product. The laying line has a preferred width of at least 1/8 inch. Other embodiments having additional or different features are discussed in greater detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] The following drawings demonstrate aspects of some of the present roofing products. They illustrate by way of example and not limitation. Like reference numbers refer to similar elements.

[0010]FIG. 1 shows a prior art composite slate roofing product.

[0011]FIG. 2 shows one of the present roofing products.

[0012]FIG. 3 shows portions of two overlapping courses applied using one of the present roofing products.

DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

[0013] In this document (including the claims), the terms “comprise” (and any form of comprise, such as “comprises” and “comprising”), “have” (and any form of have, such as “has” and “having”), and “include” (and any form of include, such as “includes” and “including”) are open-ended linking verbs. Thus, a roofing product “comprising” a laying line oriented lengthwise on one side of the roofing product, the laying line having a width of at least ⅛ inch, is a roofing product that possess the recited feature, but is not limited to possessing only the recited feature. For example, the roofing product also covers roofing products with nibs protruding from their sides.

[0014] The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more than one. The term “another” is defined as at least a second or more.

[0015] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that in this detailed description, certain well known roofing application techniques and manufacturing methods have been omitted so that the present roofing products are not obscured in unnecessary detail. Dimensions provided in English units may be translated to the corresponding metric unit by rounding to the nearest millimeter.

[0016] The present roofing products include a laying line of greater width, or thickness, than known laying lines. The inventors have discovered that it is easier to apply roofing products with wider laying lines because the wider line makes alignment easier than was possible with prior, thinner laying lines. At least some of these alignment advantages are illustrated and described in greater detail below.

[0017]FIG. 1 shows a prior art composite slate roofing product 10. Composite slate roofing product 10 includes a laying line 2 positioned on front surface 2, and nibs 6 protruding from left and right sides 7 and 8, respectively. Shortened scale 9 is positioned on front surface 2 extending inwardly from left side 7, and can be equipped with numbers. As is known in the art, aligning a scale mark equipped with, for example, “8” with the top edge of an underlying roofing product indicates that 8 inches (or centimeters or millimeters as the case may be) of the butt portion of the underlying product will be exposed. Nail holes 5 are oriented in composite slate roofing product 10 beneath the lower-most nibs.

[0018]FIG. 2 shows roofing product 100, one of the present roofing products. A portion or all of roofing product 100 may be configured (e.g., shaped) like a slate roofing product, or any other type of roofing product, including traditional asphalt shingles. Roofing product 100 has front surface 110; laying line 120 positioned, or oriented, lengthwise in the center of front surface 110; and non-indented nail zones 130 outlined on front surface 110. As desired, laying line 120 may be positioned in the center of front surface 110, or offset from the center. Laying line 120 has a length L and a width W. Roofing product 100 also has top 102, bottom 104, right side 106, left side 108, and scale ticks 122 that extend inwardly from the sides of roofing product 100. Scale ticks 122 may be marked with numbers, as described above.

[0019] Roofing product 100 may also be provided with two nibs 140 protruding from each side. Each nib 140 has a width W_(n), and all of the widths may be the same. Although two nibs are shown protruding from each side of roofing product 100, as few as one nib per side may be used. Alternatively, three or more nibs may protrude from each side. The nibs may also be eliminated altogether. As is known in the art, the two nibs 140 on left side 108 may be spaced apart from each other by the same distance that separates the two nibs 140 on right side 106, and the pair of nibs 140 on left side 108 may be staggered higher (or lower—not shown) than the pair of nibs 140 on right side 106.

[0020] Suitable lengths L for laying line 120 include any length up to the entire length of the non-exposed portion of the roofing product. For example, suitable lengths L include 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 inches. A suitable width W for laying line 120 is at least ⅛ inches. Other suitable widths include at least {fraction (3/16)} inches and at least ¼ inches. W may be less than, equal to, or greater than W_(n) in different embodiments.

[0021] Laying line 120 may be applied to front surface 110 of roofing product 100 using any suitable method. For example, if a molding process is used to create the roofing product, laying line 120 may be a part of the mold. For instance, the laying line may be pressed into, embossed on, or protrude from front surface 110. Alternatively, laying line 120 may be embossed into front surface 110 using an embossing tool, such as an embossing wheel that is part of a sheet line process for making roofing products 100. Other methods of applying laying line 120 to front surface 110 of roofing product 100—regardless of whether roofing product 100 is man-made (e.g., a composite) or natural—include painting, using a pressure- sensitive or heat-sensitive adhesive, marking (e.g., with a marker, a pen, or chalk), or taping. Any suitable method of application may be used. Typically, the method will be dictated substantially by the type of material to which laying line 120 is applied. Non-indented nail zones 130 may be applied to front surface 110 using any of these same methods.

[0022] Roofing product 100 may be natural or man-made. Man-made versions of roofing product 100 may include any suitable material, such as rubber (e.g., ground up tire rubber), polymers such as polyethylene (any grade; recycled or virgin), fillers (e.g., glass, stone, limestone, etc.), asphalt embedded mats, tile, or any other suitable composition. Natural versions of roofing product 100 may be made of stone, slate, wood, or any other suitable material.

[0023] Natural versions of roofing product 100 may be cut to shape using known techniques. Similarly, man-made versions of roofing product 100 may be made and cut or molded to shape using known techniques.

[0024] For example, one manner of making a composite version of roofing product 100 uses a combination mixer and extruder. The ingredients for the roofing product may mixed in the mixer. The mixture may then pass through the extruder. A pelletizer may be coupled to the extruder and pellets of the composite mixture may be created. The pellets may be fed into an injection molding machine, which may then operate to reheat the pellets to a molten state. The molten mixture may then be fed in any suitable manner into one or more molds that have been cast or machined (such as by digitized modeling) to have the desired shape of the composite roofing product. After the composite roofing product has been molded and allowed to cool, it may be taken from its mold, bundled with other composite roofing products, and stored for later sale and use.

[0025] Many other types of making composite versions of roofing product 100 are known to those of skill in the art, and need not be repeated.

[0026] The dimensions of the present roofing products may be altered depending on the application. In one embodiment, the roofing product will be ¼ inches thick, 12 inches wide and 18 inches long. One side (e.g., a portion) of the roofing product may resemble slate. This may be accomplished by molding or otherwise forming (e.g., through cutting) one side of a man-made version of roofing product 100 to simulate natural slate. Alternatively, an embodiment of roofing product 100 with these dimensions may be created using natural slate. Further, instead of one side that resembles slate, the roofing product with these dimensions may have one side that resembles any other roofing product, including but not limited to shakes, slates, tiles, or shingles. Dimensions other than those listed above may be used with the present roofing products as desired.

[0027] The present roofing products may be part of a roofing system. Application methods for roofing products are well known in the art and need not be described in further detail. However, FIG. 3 shows one manner in which one embodiment of roofing product 100 may be applied to a roof. FIG. 3 shows a portion of a first course 150 of roofing products 100, and a portion of a second course 160 of roofing products 100 overlying the first course. FIG. 3 shows that due to its increased width over known laying lines, the embodiment of laying line 120 shown almost fills the gap 155 left between adjacent roofing products 100 in the portion of second course 160. As a result, it is easier to align the courses, making application quicker and more accurate.

[0028] One area of improved alignment concerns nibs 140. As FIG. 3 shows, nib 140 of the left roofing product in the top course is positioned on top of the laying line of the middle roofing product of the bottom course. The ability to align the point of nib 140 closer to one side (e.g., the right side in FIG. 3) of the laying line as shown is an advantage over prior laying lines, which are thinner and therefore spaced farther from the point of the nibs (see, e.g., FIG. 1). FIG. 3 also shows that right side 106 of the left roofing product in the top course (which corresponds to the leading edge of the roofing product) is positioned at or near the same laying line. Again, with prior, thinner laying lines, the distance between the leading edge of the roofing product and the old laying line was greater. As a result, alignment was more difficult.

[0029] The features of the present roofing products need not be made exactly as described above to fall within the scope of the claims and their equivalents. For example, while two non-indented nail zones are shown outlined on the front surface of the roofing product shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, one, three or more such non-indented nail zones may be used. Alternatively, no non-indented nail zone may be used.

[0030] The claims are not to be interpreted as including means-plus- or step-plus-function limitations, unless such a limitation is explicitly recited in a given claim using the phrase(s) “means for” or “step for,” respectively. 

We claim:
 1. A roofing product comprising: a laying line oriented lengthwise on one side of the roofing product, the laying line having a width of at least ⅛ inches.
 2. The roofing product of claim 1, in which the width of the laying line is at least {fraction (3/16)} inches.
 3. The roofing product of claim 1, in which the width of the laying line is at least ¼ inches.
 4. The roofing product of claim 1, further comprising: a first nib protruding from a first side of the roofing product.
 5. The roofing product of claim 4, further comprising: a second nib protruding from a second side of the roofing product.
 6. The roofing product of claim 5, where the first and second nibs have the same width as the laying line.
 7. The roofing product of claim 1, further comprising: a non-indented nail zone outlined on the same side of the roofing product as the laying line.
 8. The roofing product of claim 1, in which a portion of the roofing product is configured to resemble slate.
 9. The roofing product of claim 1, in which a portion of the roofing product is configured to resemble a shake.
 10. The roofing product of claim 1, in which the roofing product is made of slate.
 11. The roofing product of claim 1, in which the roofing product is made of wood.
 12. A roofing product comprising: a laying line oriented lengthwise on a front side of the roofing product; a first nib protruding from a first side of the roofing product; a second nib protruding from a second side of the roofing product; and a non-indented nail zone outlined on the front side of the roofing product; where the first nib, the second nib, and the laying line each have an equal width.
 13. The roofing product of claim 12, in which a portion of the roofing product is configured to resemble slate. 